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Transportation

Americans have always been a people on the move—on rails, roads, and waterways (for travel through the air, visit the National Air and Space Museum). In the transportation collections, railroad objects range from tools, tracks, and many train models to the massive 1401, a 280-ton locomotive built in 1926. Road vehicles include coaches, buggies, wagons, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and automobiles—from the days before the Model T to modern race cars. The accessories of travel are part of the collections, too, from streetlights, gas pumps, and traffic signals to goggles and overcoats.

In the maritime collections, more than 7,000 design plans and scores of ship models show the evolution of sailing ships and other vessels. Other items range from scrimshaw, photographs, and marine paintings to life jackets from the Titanic.

Once a whale was caught, killed, and brought alongside the mother ship, the outer flesh and fat layer, or blubber, was peeled off the carcass. Then the remains were drawn onto the vessel’s deck for further processing.

The heavy head spade was used for decapitating the whale, by chopping through the vertebrae at the base of the animal’s skull. Then the head and bone could be further processed.

The phrase Newest, Largest and Fastest on this 1952 poster captures the excitement surrounding the launching of the SS United States. Designed by naval architect and marine engineer William Francis Gibbs and built in Newport News, Virginia, the ship was delivered to its owners, the United States Lines, in 1952. It immediately took its place as the most modern (Newest) liner on the transatlantic route and the pride of the U.S. passenger fleet.

At launching, the SS United States was unquestionably the Largest U. S.-flagged passenger ship and the largest of the United States Lines’ fleet. Although at 990 feet in length it was slightly smaller than Britain’s 1,019-foot-long liner the Queen Mary, the SS United States could still carry about the same number of passengers while displacing significantly less water. The emphasis on size is suggested by the two smoke stacks (funnels) featured prominently on the poster. The funnels vented the combustion gases from the vessel’s four propulsion plants into the air. At the time, these structures were the largest ever built for this purpose. The company claimed that the funnels were so large that ten automobiles could be lined up side by side in each of them.

In terms of speed (Fastest), there was no contest. The poster artist conveys speed with the looped arrow and one can speculate that the loop represents the round-trip voyage on the ship’s regular service between the East Coast of the United States and Europe (New York / Havre / Southampton on the poster). The maiden voyage of the SS United States broke all records for a round trip with an average speed of 35.59 knots, or 39.50 miles per hour. The ship’s fastest speed was 38.32 knots, or 44 miles per hour. This speed was achieved by four separate steam turbine propulsion systems driving four separate propellers, each measuring 18 feet in diameter. Together these units produced 240,000 shaft horsepower.

The superlative nature of the SS United States was summed up by the British humor magazine Punch when it commented, on the arrival of the ship in port on her maiden voyage: “After the loud and fantastic claims made in advance for the liner United States, it comes as something of a disappointment to find them all true.”

In 1906 Ng Shee Lee packed her clothes and belongings in this trunk and left China for America. It was a difficult trip. She slept next to the noisy engine room; arriving tired and sick in San Francisco she was met by the devastating 1906 earthquake. Ng Shee then made her way alone by train across Canada to New York where she rejoined her husband, Lee B. Lok.

This small porcelain cup was recovered by a sport diver from the wreck of the steamer Indiana. Its findspot was not recorded, so it is not known whether it belonged to a crewman or was aboard for use by passengers at mealtimes.

These hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space belowdecks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.

The hand truck—virtually identical to modern examples—is one of four found aboard Indiana and used for moving cargo into, out of, and around the cargo hold of the ship. This hand truck was the artifact that actually identified the vessel when it was located in 1972, for the words “PROPR INDIANA” were stamped into its handle. The other three had different ships’ names stamped on them, indicating that they were secondhand or borrowed equipment.

This chrome-plated metal cap badge bears the engraving “BRAKEMAN” filled with black paint. This badge identified the wearer's crew position on passenger trains. The brakeman’s duties included moving from car to car to trigger the brakes and slow the train around turns or steep grades, dropping cars at stations, lining switches, and signaling crew members about train operations.

Ira Wertman, a farmer in Andreas, Pennsylvania, raised fruits and vegetables and peddled them with this truck to retired coal miners near Allentown. He also used the truck to take produce to market and haul supplies from town to the farm. Pickup trucks have been versatile aids to a wide range of agricultural, personal, and business activities. Early pickup trucks were modified automobiles, but postwar models were larger, more powerful, and able to carry heavier loads. Some postwar pickups were used in building suburban communities. Others were used for recreational purposes such as camping, hunting, and fishing. By the 1990s, many people purchased pickups for everyday driving.

Joline J. Butler (about 1815–1846, working in New York City between 1841 and 1845) engraved this printing block after a drawing called Street View of Honolulu by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 415 of Volume III of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.

Henry Horenstein photographed Hank Williams Jr., the son of legendary singer Hank Williams, leaving his tour bus. Williams Jr. (b. 1949) spent his early career singing his father's songs in his own style. After a 1974 suicide attempt and a mountain climbing accident in 1975, he revamped his own image, modeling it after rowdy southern rockers. Later he was considered part of the Outlaw Country Movement.